I made asparagus soup for Easter dinner and served it cold: 1 lb asparagus in 1" pieces, 1 potato, 1 onion, onion sweated in 2 tb butter, potato and asparagus added, covered 2x deep with water, added some Knorr chicken bouillon powder (you can just use s&p), simmered 20 mins, blended smooth and put through a sieve, corrected seasoning. It was delicious and very intensely flavored - more so before I added the 1/4 c of cream at the end, dairy really does mute flavors.

We have 20 asparagus plants on our farm some over 50 years old. We make many batches of this soup and freeze it. On the coldest winter days, an Asparagus soup for lunch or as a starter for a Sunday meal will make the winter blahs disappear. If left a little thicker, it makes a great Asparagus sauce to use over pasta, or as a bed for grilled sea scallops...

1) Clean Asparagus by remove tough bottom part of the stem and peel bottom third with a vegetable peeler, but reserve stems and peels.2) Cut cleaned Asparagus into small pieces, but reserve some of the nicest tips for garnish.3) In a large pot, saute onions in oil and butter, add asparagus and simmer 5 minutes. 4) In a small pot, simmer cut stems and asparagus peels in 1L stock for 10 minutes, strain stock into asparagus and onion pot.5) Add Parsley and remaining 1L of the stock to Asparagus and simmer 1 hour.6) Strain sauce and press vegetables through a fine sieve (Straining is classic but takes time and makes a mess, I just blend thoroughly with hand blender. If toughest parts of stem have been removed and peeled, blending is fine).6) Add reserved Asparagus tips and cook 5 minutes (omit tips if freezing soup).7) Freeze as is or serve hot with sprinkling of grated Parmesan and Croutons.

Optional : whisk in a little 18% cream and butter to make a rich Cream of Asparagus soup.